Until the nurse used the ultrasound to reveal the truth, almost everyone tells us “Tiantian” is a girl, even the nurse said that just by looking at the tummy of the mommy. We were also such a firm believer that a girl is on her way after we heard the unanimous conclusion from our friends: Just to quote some:

“I believe you must have a girl, just by looking at the face development of the mommy, mommy with a boy tend to have significant changes, you are still you” says Tianbin.

“I had two girls and one boys, your tummy just looks like mine with a girl” says our neighbour.

“You didn’t change that much as we saw during Hong’s pregancy (who has a boy), so you must have a girl” says Xingzhou.

“Based on Li’s one girl and one boy experience, you look like to have a girl” says Jim.

“It’s a girl’s year in our bible study, we got so far all girls this year” says Li.

Everyone is so sure that we have to join the camp and start buying all these pink cloth/bedding/decoration etc. and it turns out no one (include us, except our mother-in-law) has got it right - it doesn’t take too long for the nurse to point a thing on the screen - “see, that is the pxxxs”

What a surprise!

Finally, after weeks of waiting and rescheduling, we FINALLY got to see our baby again!  So thankful to God that everything is looking great and our little angel is growing very well…we saw his little fingers, face, spinal cord, and *ahem* private part.

Unlike my first ultrasound though, I had a much harder time making out the images this time - nurse said it’s because baby is bigger now so we can only see certain parts at a time and not the entire profile like last time.  I was really grateful that she continuously explained what was on the screen or else I had no idea what it was that I was looking at! ;P

 I feel like a bad mommy though cause when she said, “…and this is baby’s face.”, I was horrified because I saw a skull-looking thing looking back at me, then later, another view made me think of a dinosaur.  I felt REALLY guilty for having these thoughts about my own baby…I was thinking to myself, “Why does our baby look like a skull/dinosaur?”, but the nurse later comforted me and explained to me that later, when the body fats start to develop under baby’s skin, baby will look rounder and not so skull-like.

When we went in this morning, the nurse asked us if we get to find out if it’s a boy or girl today.  She then asked us what we thought it was - we said everyone has been telling us that it’s a girl, and I guess she agreed because she said, “from the shape?” and I nodded.  She added that it’s been a “girl” day today. 

So after doing the routine checks, she got a bottom-up view of baby with its legs wide open (what a cooperative sweetie!) - because my eyes were glued to the screen during the whole time, I saw what was on the screen and thought, “Uh…there is something sticking out between its legs!” and thought Boo had seen it too (he later told me he was too busy taking photos to notice) and nurse asked, “So you want to know, right?” and she said, “It’s a boy!” and pointed at his little “birdie”.  Boo seemed to have won the lottery and exclaimed with his big round eyes wide open like a kid in awe, “REALLY?!” His reaction was so strong that the nurse asked if we haven’t had a boy in our family for a long time. I replied, “No, this is our first one.” and she said, “Oh, I mean in the whole family.” and we explained that Boo’s sister-in-law has a daugher so yes, this would be the first boy on both sides of the family.  Now I am afraid that this baby will be spoiled rotten!

The mommy looks so big now, a good surprise when I get off the plane from my boston trip, in fact she weighs almost the same as me! So excited that we will know our baby is a boy or girl in two days.

so let’s review some facts as of today:

145 days since conception;  

10 pounds gained;

5 books about how to be parents read; 

15 pimples shown up on the mommy’s face;

3 doctor visits

Boo and I were lured into the USA Baby store yesterday - don’t know how they know we are expecting, but received a postcard from them saying that they were having a one day sale (”save up to 70% on everything in our store!”).  Of course, a lot of things were just 10% off, but Boo still managed to discover a REALLY cute baby lamp whose base is a blue/green nightstand and comes with a shade printed with little butterflies for $10 (80% off) and 3 yellow duckie wall decoration pieces that are coincidentally also in the same shade of blue and green.  We’ve decided to mix up the colors a little in the nursery so we can welcome either a baby boy or girl (both in terms of this pregnancy and the next one ;P ).

I’ve been somewhat worried for the past few days…haven’t heard Tiantian’s heartbeat since 2/23, and I can not be 100% if I can feel Tiantian moved so I am concerned.  I have laid in complete silence and felt all over my tummy to see if I can feel her, but I am not sure.  I have even prep talked our little angel to kick me hard to let me know she is ok - I think I do, but then I may be imagining it!

However, the cutest thing happened just a little while ago - I was walking up the stairs and a bubble sound escaped from my tummy! I literally felt the bubble rising and according to what I have read, that is what fetal movement feels like!  I was so excited I woke Boo up from his sleep to tell him. He didn’t quite understand but sheepishly smiled and went back to sleep.

Mommy was not happy today - she found out this morning that Daddy did not reschedule his flight for his business trip to a later time so he can accompany Mommy to see me on the 20th. 

Daddy gave her a lot of excuses about him getting confused, thought Mommy had scheduled it some other time…but Mommy’s habit of saving conversations came in handy as it proved Daddy guilty beyond a doubt. 

Daddy finally pleaded guilty and begged for Mommy to change the date so he can see me too - Mommy’s heart softened and called the doctor’s office to change the ultrasound ONE MORE TIME. Hope Daddy won’t mess things up this time!

Dadi is so bored today and then a bright idea just stuck in his mind, take a photo of me in the studio! He hasn’t done any real studio stuff for a year or so (he always call himself a talented photographer, although nobody else thought that way), maternity photography sounds a real challenge for him. After put mami in the cold for about 40 mins, finally dadi got one nice photo, actually it is not my photo but my mami’s photo (out of 40 shots taken) that satisfied mami’s picky eyes. That is what you see below… wow, now I know am getting bigger!